1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer chassis, and more particularly to a computer chassis compatible with an ATX motherboard and a BTX motherboard.
2. Description of Related Art
A computer usually has a computer chassis that may hold a motherboard, a power supply and multiple printed circuit boards (PCB) such as a graphic card, a sound card and a network card.
The motherboard mounted to the computer chassis usually has electronic components such as electric capacities, slots for Random Access Memories (RAM), a socket for a central processing unit (CPU) mounted on the motherboard. Motherboards are available in several standards such as an advanced technology extended (ATX) standard and a micro-ATX standard depending on arrangements of electronic components on the motherboards. ATX motherboards are applied to most computers nowadays.
With reference to FIG. 7, a conventional computer chassis in accordance with the prior art is compatible with ATX motherboards and comprises two posts (70), a motherboard holder (80) and a back panel (90). The motherboard holder (80) is mounted on one of the posts (70). The back panel (90) is formed integrally between the posts (70) and has a top edge (not numbered), a bottom edge (not numbered), two sides (not numbered), a rectangular hole (91), two vents (92) and multiple longitudinal slots (93). The rectangular hole (91) is defined through the back panel (90) close to the top edge of the back panel (90) and is adjacent to the motherboard holder (80). The vents (92) are defined through the back panel (90) close to the top edge of the back panel (90) and are adjacent to the rectangular hole (91). The longitudinal slots (93) are defined through the back panel (90) close to the bottom edge of the back panel (90) under the rectangular slots (91) and the vents (92). The arrangement of the rectangular hole (91), vents (92) and the longitudinal slots (93) of the back panel (90) is aimed at an ATX motherboard.
The famous chip-manufacturer, Intel Corp.®, redesigns the arrangement of electronic components on a motherboard to be adapted to new computer hardware and to improve the performance of the motherboard, as well as setting a balanced technology extended (BTX) standard for motherboards. The arrangement of electronic components on a BTX motherboard is opposite to the arrangement of electronic components on an ATX motherboard. The back panel (90) of the conventional computer chassis is formed integrally and is incompatible with the BTX motherboards, and the arrangement of the rectangular hole (91), vents (92) and the longitudinal slots (93) on the back panel (90) is not available for the BTX motherboard. Therefore, computer chassis manufacturers manufacturing the conventional computer chassis have to manufacture BTX computer chassis additionally for BTX motherboards. However, computer hardware develops very rapidly and BTX motherboards are becoming very popular and even substitute for ATX motherboards. It is predictable that ATX motherboards will be unmarketable soon and the computer chassis manufacturers will incur significant losses due to the obsolete conventional computer chassis, especially to ATX motherboards.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides an improved computer chassis to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.